Hi everyone, it's Hillary here with a quick reminder for you.

This week we're going to be re-broadcasting one of our absolute favorite episodes while we're working on our next round of truly inspiring interviews.

It's definitely worth a second listen or a first if you missed it the first time around and we'll be back with new episodes soon.

Now on to the show.

Hi everyone, I'm your host Hillary Kerr and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.

We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears and what happens when they embark on their second life.

Today I am delighted to welcome a woman who I personally have followed for years, Homestyle Expert and Design Guru Emily Henderson.

She has been a part of my life from afar for a very long time. I watched her when she won HGTV's Design Star and then she had a couple of seasons of an amazing show called Secrets from a Stylus.

I also love her blog Style by Emily Henderson. She's also targets HomExpert and has a New York Times bestselling book, Style Secrets for Ranging Rooms from Table Tops to Bookshelves.

But before she was running a super successful website working as an interior designer and renovating homes, she actually worked as a prop stylist and was just trying to figure out her path forward.

I'm so excited to have her on the pod today. So now with no further ado, it's Emily Henderson on Second Life.

Let's go back to the beginning. Talk to me about what you studied in school and what you thought you were going to be when you grew up.

Okay. I studied comparative literature and history. I grew up in a very small town. Before the internet, it was literally like teacher doctor lawyer, you know, that kind of situation.

So both my parents were teachers and I guess I assumed that that would be what I would do. But it was the 90s where you studied whatever interest you didn't study what you thought you were going to be.

You know what I mean? Maybe people do that still. But like everybody that works for me that isn't in the 20s, they studied what they, what the career they wanted, which I think is a lot smarter than a pro.

Oh, just then just like, I like to read them and I just study English. But anyway, so that's what I studied, which I guess at the time I wanted to be a teacher. But then as soon as I graduated, I realized that I wanted to be around pretty things.

And I didn't know what that meant, but I knew they liked pretty things.

That's interesting that you say that though, because I too studied literature, because I thought if I may have studied something for four years, it might as well just why can't I just read books for four years?

That sounds like a great idea. And I had a journalism was my minor. So I picked that up towards the end where I thought, okay, like it was going to be difficult to say, you know, I'm going to be a novelist when I graduate.

But I didn't really, I thought it was really nice to learn for the sake of learning. And now everything is like learning for a purpose. And I don't think one is necessarily better than the other. But there was something very luxurious about learning just because you were interested.

I think you're right. I think I'm being a little bit narrow-minded with my, I think I like to punish myself for not having skills. And that is how I do it.

Again, I tell everybody this in college to at least have a minor in something that requires a skill. So you had journalism. That was smart of you.

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